Yang Yin, Madam Chung and the S$40 million question

Hello everyone. Okay, I have been asked by some of my readers to offer my opinion on the Yang Yin case - this story broke when I was away in Africa and I have since spent some time catching up on my reading. There just seems to be this huge tirade of bitter anti-PRC comments on social media relating to the case and I am not going to get sucked into that. Instead, I am going to make a more general point about what the Yang Yin case reveals about our society.

Many Singaporeans want Yang Yin jailed for a long time.

Let me tell you about a neighbour of mine - now I live in an apartment block in central London, these are small flats in the heart of the West End (Singaporeans, just imagine living a stone's throw from Orchard Road, I am just 320 meters from Regent Street). These are small flats designed for singles or couples but there is not enough room for a family with children. Now there is an older, rich old lady living on her own in my block - let's call her Rose because I know she likes flowers. Rose leads a pretty lonely life - she was never married and lives on her own.

Now I think we all make an assumption that older folks get along because they share something in common: they're all old. That's not really the case in practice, the elderly can fight and argue amongst themselves just as much as young people do and I am aware of the ongoing argument that Rose has with other elderly residents in the block. I am aware of what she is like, how she has antagonized some of the other residents, so I am polite but formal with her and I keep my distance. After all, given the huge generation gap, Rose and I are never ever going to become good friends.

We do have a residents association in our block and I became one of the committee members on it earlier this year. Since Rose found out that I am a committee member, she has been hounding me, stalking me - you see, she is pretty desperate for attention from somebody, anybody and she has made it a habit of constantly complaining about the block just so somebody would sit down and give her some attention. Her complaints were either about imaginary problems that were based entirely on "what if...", such as, "what would we do if they shut down the heating in the middle of winter?" I found myself frustrated with her because these were utterly crazy scenarios and I tried to be reasonable with her, "we'll deal with that situation should it arise, but nobody is going to cut off your heating in winter for no good reason." 

I was then warned by another elderly neighbour (let's call her Lily, since I know she likes flowers too.) "Ignore Rose, she is being ridiculous. She just wants your attention, oh she wants someone to talk to. She is just bored and lonely, she has no one to talk to all day." I was a bit puzzled at first. "If she wants to talk to me, why can't she just make casual conversation, you know, small talk. Ask me about my plans for the weekend, talk about the weather, things like that? Why does she have to come up with some ridiculous complaint, based on an imaginary problem that doesn't even exist?"

I found it hard to understand Rose's mindset.

"Young man," Lily explained. "Rose doesn't have a clue how to do small talk. I've lived here for a long time and I've known her for over 30 years - she has never made small talk with me once in 30 years. Don't assume that everyone would have the social skills to make friends, engage people, have a casual chat with a neighbour and turn that neighbour from an acquaintance to a friend. Rose used to have a job where she was very busy and people had to answer to her, she had plenty of clients to deal with at work at work, many meetings to attend, she had people waiting to take instructions from her. Then she retired and realized that she no longer had anyone to see - I heard she was quite mean and who bullied those who worked for her, she made people quite afraid of her in the office. I don't think she has any friends - I sometimes see her out having lunch or tea on her own, but even I don't want to talk to her. She has known me as a neighbour for so long yet she has made no effort to be my friend, so why should I bother trying to be her friend?"

I could go on, but you get the idea. Rose is simply a lonely older woman who has very poor social skills, no friends and it seems she has latched onto the idea of getting others to pay attention to her by complaining. And yes, it works - we live in a society where we would always pay attention to an elderly lady when she is unhappy and complaining, but that is not quite the same as friendship for it is a completely different kind of social interaction. I may respond to a complaint from Rose with kindness, out of a mixture of charity and pity, but that is not quite the same as me actually liking her.

I do feel sorry for Rose, but I don't like her at all.

Now in the case of Yang Yin and Madam Chung - I can't comment on the mindset or character of Madam Chung, I just wanted to point out that someone like Rose could easily fallen prey to a conman like Yang Yin. Rose had money and craved attention - Yang Yin wants money and is happy to supply someone like Rose with all the attention she craved. That sounds like a match made in heaven. This kind of relationship has been analyzed in my previous post on Tunisian Love Rats, where younger Tunisian men prey on older, lonely white female tourists in Tunisia. I don't think anyone would bat an eyelid if the tables were turned, say if an elder man had a young mistress from China - everyone would see that as a financial transaction. She is paying for her privileges with her sex, it is no different from the kind of arrangement between a paying customer and a prostitute. As long as both parties are consensual in such an arrangement, most of us would gladly look the other way and mind our own business as long as nothing illegal is taking place.

Did this relationship with Yang Yin bring Madam Chung joy? And if it did, is that joy worth S$40 million? Clearly, most Singaporeans see this as downright criminal and are glad that Yang Yin has been arrested. But let me put this to you: Yang Yin had moved in with Madam Chung back in 2009 - that was five years ago, why didn't anyone in Madam Chung's family do or say anything back then? Why did they look they other way and simply allow Yang Yin to work his way deeper and deeper into Madam Chung's life? Why did they wait this long to try to do anything about the situation, given that Madam Chung had already made a will to leave everything to Yang Yin in 2010? What took them so long?

Certainly the kind of relationship that Yang Yin has with Madam Chung is hard for us to understand. It isn't sexual, it is more about companionship and whilst I cannot comment on what Madam Chung gets out of her relationship with Yang Yin, I can see from the way Rose behaves that some older people genuinely crave attention - it is hardly unusual. If Rose wants to pay someone like Yang Yin to play the part of a loving son/grandson, then I say, why not? It's her money to spend as she wishes. You wouldn't object if Rose spent her money on a servant, a cook, a butler or a driver - so why not a pretend son/grandson who would shower her with affection and give her all the attention she craves?

Money is the defining factor in Yang Yin's relationship with Madam Chung - is that anything new? In China today, you can rent an 'Angmoh/老外" for your company to give your local Chinese company a far more international feel by having a European face or two amongst your staff when important visitors come to your office. Furthermore, in China, there is also a trend in renting a fake boyfriend or girlfriend just for the family reunions during the Chinese new year holiday period. It seems you can rent anything - or in this case, anyone - in China for the sake of projecting an image or creating an impression, so if Yang Yin wants to rent his family out to give Madam Chung the experience of 抱孙子 ("playing with grandchildren") - then why not? But at S$40 million, no he is ripping her off and that is certainly not a fair price.

In China, you can rent an Angmoh/laowai to impress clients.

That's the problem with our modern society - we are pressured into studying hard, getting a good degree, working hard, making money, getting ahead in life and so little emphasis is placed on social skills, making friends, getting along with people, developing quality relationships. We are somehow just expected to figure all these out on our own through trial and error - some of us do better than others in this aspect. We manage to figure it out at some stage, but others don't. Cast your mind back to your school days and think about the most people students in your school, then try to remember the oddball who had no friends. What do you think happened to these oddballs in school when they grew up and became adults and then became old? They simply turn into old people like my neighbour Rose.

The main reason why there is such a strong reaction in the case of the Yang Yin case is because of his nationality - he is from China and already, there is an extremely strong anti-China racist sentiment amongst Singaporeans. Give Singaporeans half a reason to hate PRCs even more and they will latch on to it, thus Yang Yin has become a hate figure, a point of focus for all the anti-PRC hatred they have. And of course, it doesn't help that Yang Yin is pretty gross looking as well - he certainly is nothing pretty to look at, thus it is very easy to turn him into a monster and scapegoat. But if all you do is heap your hatred on him, then you're missing the wood for the trees: consider what the bigger picture is.

Who can we blame then? Who gave Yang Yin his PR status?

I would like to be constructive and point out the following please: let's not heap any more hatred onto any of the individuals involved. Instead, serious questions should be raised about the system which allowed Yang Yin to settle in Singapore in the first place. Clearly, there were irregularities with his application for PR status with allegations that he had submitted falsified documents and falsely claiming that he has worked with three companies (Chan Brothers, SA Tours and another Chinese company in Zhejiang province) and that is currently being investigated. If the system had been far more robust, if Yang Yin should never have been allowed to settle in Singapore in the first place. More to the point - Yang Yin's case was only brought to the attention of the authorities because Madam Chung's niece Madam Hedy Mok alerted the police. How many more cases are there like Yang Yin - who have obtained their PR status by providing falsified documents? Will there be a review of historical cases to check the paperwork of PRC PRs to see if there is any evidence of fraud? What can be done to ensure that other conmen like Yang Yin are kept out of Singapore?

I feel sorry for Madam Chung, yes she has made some terrible errors of judgement but I do hope that her relatives now will make more of an effort to care for her as she gets older, that they are not just doing that to try to lay their hands on her S$40 million fortune. For better or for worse, at least Yang Yin's family living with Madam Chung gave her some kind of surrogate family and she wasn't living alone for the last 5 years. What will happen to her now? What kind of arrangements would be made to care for her, now it is clear that she is suffering from senile dementia?

Who will care for Madam Chung now?

Finally, I think the lesson we can take away from this is that we should all spend a lot more time and effort on the way we develop our relationships with those in our lives: friends, colleagues, family member and neighbours. It is shocking that someone like Madam Chung could be duped by a conman like Yang Yin, but I wonder how many of us would make similar errors when it comes to judging a person's character? I had been worried about my mother in the past, but even I fell prey to a conman whilst traveling in Tunisia recently. If you have children or younger siblings, do take a moment and think about how you can teach them to be a better judge of human character in this complex world. You'll be amazed how many seemingly intelligent and well educated people end up like my elderly neighbour Rose.

As always, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on this. Thank you for reading.